Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar raised LGBTI-specific issues during Pope Francis’ two-day visit to the country.Varadkar, who is openly gay, on Saturday in a speech in front of Francis at Dublin Castle pointed out same-sex [...]
HIV/AIDS activists in the U.S. and around the world are urging the International AIDS Society to relocate the 2020 International AIDS Conference that is scheduled to take place in the San Francisco Bay Area. HIPS, [...]
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released from its custody 14 transgender women who are seeking asylum in the U.S. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts in a July 31 press release that announced [...]
The British government on Tuesday announced it will ban so-called conversion therapy in the U.K. The ban is among the 75 recommendations to promote equality and fight discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity [...]
By Grace Perry Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Sunday became Mexico’s first leftist president in decades, winning in a landslide victory with more than 50 percent of the vote. López Obrador — commonly known by [...]
The U.S. on Tuesday announced it has withdrawn from the U.N. Human Rights Council. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told reporters during a press conference at the State Department that Cuba, Venezuela, China, [...]
Three well-known LGBTI rights advocates in the Mexican state of Guerrero were killed over the weekend. Authorities on Sunday found the bodies of Rubén Estrada, Roberto Vega and Carlos Uriel López in Taxco, a city [...]
British Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch on Friday urged Commonwealth countries that have yet to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations to do so. “We just urge all of our friends and partners in other [...]
Bermuda Supreme Court Chief Justice Ian R. C. Kawaley on Wednesday ruled a law that rescinded marriage rights for same-sex couples in the British island territory is unconstitutional. Kawaley issued his ruling five days after the [...]
A gay man from Chile who was sexually abused by a priest said Pope Francis told him earlier this month that God “loves you.” Juan Carlos Cruz and two other victims of Rev. Fernando Karadima [...]
Canada is the latest country to join a U.S. initiative that seeks to promote LGBTI rights around the world. The State Department and the Canadian government in a May 17 press release that announced Canada [...]
The transgender actress who starred in “A Fantastic Woman” will travel to Cuba next month for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The National Center for Sexual Education — the group known by the [...]
A gay hairdresser in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico who the Washington Blade profiled in February has had electricity restored to his home. Electricity was restored to the house in which Ricky Santiago and his family live in the [...]
A vocal opponent of marriage rights for same-sex couples on Sunday lost the second round of Costa Rica’s presidential election. Official results indicate Fabricio Alvarado lost to Carlos Alvarado by a 39-61 percent margin. Fabricio [...]
TAMPA, Fla. — Hundreds of “March for Our Lives” gun control rallies, marches and protests took place across the U.S. and around the world on Saturday. More than 10,000 people attended a “March for Our [...]
LGBT activists in Bermuda have rebuked calls to boycott the British island territory’s tourism industry over a law that rescinds marriage rights for same-sex couples. Linda Mienzer, a long-time LGBT rights activist in Bermuda, on [...]
RIO DE JANEIRO — Rio de Janeiro Councilwoman Marielle Franco was killed on March 14 at around 9:30 p.m. local time after attending and speaking at a black women’s empowerment event in the city. Franco [...]
A South Korean LGBTI advocacy group is behind the Pride House at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The Seoul-based Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center and Pride House International organized the Pride House, [...]
A judge on the Panama Supreme Court who drafted a ruling against marriage rights for same-sex couples has withdrawn it. Justice Luis Ramón Fábrega last October in his draft ruling wrote the provisions of Panama’s [...]
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — It was shortly after 4 p.m. on Jan. 30 when an employee of Bill’s Kitchen, an organization that prepares meals for Puerto Ricans with HIV/AIDS, added diesel to a large generator that [...]
Canadian Eric Radford has made history as the first openly gay athlete to win gold at the Winter Olympics. Radford, 33, and his partner Meagan Duhamel won the medal for team figure skating for their free skate to [...]
A vocal opponent of marriage rights for same-sex couples has won the first round of Costa Rica’s presidential election. The New York Times reported Fabricio Alvarado of the National Restoration Party received nearly 25 percent [...]
The Jamaican government on Monday prevented an anti-LGBT American pastor from entering the country. Steven Anderson, who is a pastor at the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., told the Jamaica Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper, that [...]
The government of Panama has signaled it plans to comply with a landmark Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that recognizes same-sex marriage and transgender rights. Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo on Tuesday announced [...]
A D.C.-based public relations firm that supports LGBT rights is promoting the Egyptian government in the U.S. Avi Asher-Schapiro of the Intercept — a website that Glenn Greenwald edits — on Dec. 6 reported APCO Worldwide in [...]
The Bermuda Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would rescind marriage rights for same-sex couples in the British island territory. The 8-3 vote took place less than a week after the Bermuda House of [...]
BY MICHAEL K. LAVERS, WASHINGTON BLADE The Puerto Rico Senate on Sunday approved a religious freedom bill that critics contend would allow anti-LGBT discrimination in the U.S. commonwealth. The bill — which is known as the [...]
New blood donation rules for gay and bisexual men have come into effect in Scotland, Wales, and in England, meaning more gay and bisexual men will be eligible to give blood. Gay and bisexual men [...]
by Michael K. Lavers The U.S., France and Brazil have blocked Egyptian and Russian efforts to remove a gay-inclusive reference to discrimination from a U.N. resolution on the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. [...]
by Michael K. Lavers A justice on the Panama Supreme Court has reportedly issued a draft ruling against the plaintiffs in a same-sex marriage lawsuit. The decision also reportedly says the Panama National Assembly should [...]
WASHINGTON, DC — Center for Global Development Senior Fellow Charles Kenny and Researcher Dev Patel released a new study Oct. 13 that finds that as social attitudes toward gays and lesbians have changed rapidly in [...]
by Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade A law that allows same-sex couples to legally marry in Malta took effect on Friday. Gabi Calleja, coordinator of the Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement, a local advocacy group, told [...]
by Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade The city of Grozny in the Russian republic of Chechnya. Authorities have sent gay men in the semi-autonomous Russian republic to secret prisons that have been described as "concentration [...]
BY BTL STAFF Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro's death has many LGBT activists reflecting on a history of repression under his regime. "I would never be happy about anyone's death -- anyone," Herb Sosa, a [...]
BY BTL STAFF INDIA - LGBT rights activists marched in New Delhi's Pride parade Nov. 27, calling for the repeal of a law that criminalizes gay sex and for an end to other instances of [...]
BY BTL STAFF Australia - Australia's bid to hold a national vote on whether to legalize same-sex marriage was defeated on Nov. 7 in the upper house of parliament, or Senate, potentially delaying legal unions [...]
Peter Tatchell with Sir Ian McKellen. #tatchellmovie An interview with Chris Amos, director of the upcoming documentary "Hating Peter Tatchell." First of all, why do you feel it's so important to make this film? [...]
By TJ Rogers Last Thursday, Aug. 4, in the midst of the "Mr. and Ms. Pride" event of Pride Uganda 2016, police raided Venom nightclub and arrested at least 15 attendees, including two prominent international [...]
From Press Release The United Nations Human Rights Council announced the creation of the first-ever UN position dedicated to combating violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people worldwide today. The effort to establish the independent expert [...]
From Press Release June 24, 2016 ILGA-Europe have always strongly believed in the power of activists and allies to work together for a common goal, namely to improve life for LGBTI people across Europe. Over [...]
Liz Baudler BANGLADESH - The National Gay Media Association April 27 joins with the world community in condemning the senseless and brutal killing April 26 of Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of Roopbaan, an LGBTI publication [...]
Russia's lower house of parliament has rejected draft legislation that called for fines and arrests of people who publicly express their homosexuality. The so-called "coming out" bill, initiated by lawmakers from the Communist Party, called [...]
BY BTL STAFF WASHINGTON, DC - The Williams Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago surveyed countries from around the world and found that acceptance of homosexuality has risen over the past 20 years [...]
BTL STAFF San Francisco The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) announced the formation of the #BornPerfect Advisory Committee , a group of conversion therapy survivors, child welfare and mental health experts, and faith leaders [...]
BTL Staff KINGSTON, JAMAICA - Young Jamaican gay rights activist who brought a legal challenged to the Caribbean island's anti-sodomy law has withdrawn the claim after multiple threats and violent backlashes, advocacy groups and colleagues [...]
BTL Staff ENGLAND - The Queen of England herself, Queen Elizabeth II granted a Royal pardon for internationally acclaimed British codebreaker and computer scientist Alan Turing. Turing took his own life in 1954 after being [...]
BTL Staff ENGLAND - Members of the longest running soap opera, Coronation Street, a British soap opera about the working class residents of the self titled street, have come out in support of the LGBT [...]
BTL Staff BERLIN - After more than 13 years in office, Klaus Wowereit announced he will be resigning on Dec. 11 of this year. He is Berlin's first openly gay mayor and helped turn the [...]
RUSSIA - Alina Davis, 23, and Allison Brooks, 19, were both donning wedding dresses when they walked into the Moscow registry office asking for a marriage license. Davis describes herself as androgyne, not fitting into [...]
